Page i 6 



BETTER FRUIT 



January, 192 1 



favor the highest percentage of set 

 when the blossoms are pollinated with 

 their own pollen, as must necessarily be 

 the case in most of our prune-growing 

 sections. 



"The Sugar prune which is supposed- 

 ly a seedling of the French showed an 

 average set of 8.1 per cent from self- 

 pollinated flowers. This evidence was 

 corroborated by data obtained in the 

 Santa Clara Valley (four-year average, 

 8.4 per cent) and shows there is no need 

 of interplanting other varieties with the 

 Sugar for purposes of cross-pollina- 

 tion. The Robe de Sergeant has em- 

 phatically and consistently proved to be 

 self-sterile and in urgent need of cross- 

 pollination to secure crops. These data 

 support the widespread contention 

 among growers that unless it is proper- 

 ly interplanted with other varieties, the 

 Robe de Sergeant is a shy bearer. 



"In spite of their reputed relationship 

 no trouble was experienced during the 

 four years in obtaining satisfactory sets 

 when French was crossed with Sugar 

 or vice versa. The French prune was 

 found to be readily cross-pollinated by 

 either the Sugar or Robe de Sergeant. 

 Although the average result of these 



hand-made crosses was not as high as 

 the set under open orchard conditions, 

 they were higher than the average set 

 resulting from the self-pollinations. 

 Thus it was shown that, even though 

 self-fertile, the French prune might still 

 be benefited by pollen other than its 

 own. The French prune has the addi- 

 tional good quality of being a heavy pol- 

 len producer and an excellent pollenizer 

 for the other varieties of prunes. The 

 French as a pollenizer for the Robe de 

 Sergeant gave an average of 10.5 per 

 cent set for the five-year period. The 

 one year's results as a pollenizer for 

 the Sugar cannot be considered infal- 

 lible as results in the Santa Clara Val- 

 ley have proved the French an efficient 

 pollenizer for the Sugar. 



"No eminently noticeable results were 

 obtained at Davis when Sugar was used 

 as the female parent. As a pollenizer 

 for both the French and Robe de Ser- 

 geant, the Sugar has no equal. It pro- 

 duces an abundance of pollen, blossoms 

 at practically the same time, and has 

 proved effective in four years' trials. 

 The high percentage (10.6 per cent) 

 when used on French, and the still 

 higher percentage (13.2 per cent) when 



\ 



chaining Outside, but Inside— 



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 heater filled with Pearl Oil. Whatever 

 the day or the time, Pearl Oil is ready to 

 give you cheerful warmth at the touch of 

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Order by name — Pearl Oil. 



STANDARD OIL COMPANY 



(California) 



used on Robe de Sergeant, amply attest 

 its value. 



"While Robe de Sergeant was proved 

 to be self-sterile, it was also shown to 

 be readily capable of fertilization by 

 any other European plum blossoming 

 at the same time. French and Sugar 

 as pollenizers for four years gave the 

 best average results, but Tragedy, Pond, 

 and Imperial Gage, tried for a lesser 

 number of seasons also show possibili- 

 ties as pollenizers for this variety. It 

 is perhaps important to note that the 

 prunes commonly grown with the Robe 

 de Sergeant are so efficient as pollen- 

 izers that the other varieties mentioned 

 (Tragedy, Pond, and Imperial Gage), 

 are rarely found planted with it. As a 

 pollenizer it has proved effective on the 

 French, but because of an improperly 

 timed operation in the one year it was 

 tried, it was not so successful on the 

 Sugar. In view of the foregoing it 

 would certainly seem advisable to in- 

 terplant Robe de Sergeant prunes with 

 either the French or Sugar varieties. 



"The most interesting fact noticed in 

 studying the set of the fruit under open 

 orchard conditions in two Santa Clara 

 Valley orchards was the small percent- 

 age of blossoms which matured fruit. 

 Yet it is with these low percentages of 

 set that the commercial crop of prunes 

 of California is produced. In the Pettit 

 orchard at Cupertino this set has been 

 remarkably uniform and has yielded 

 each year what the owner considers to 

 be a fair crop. In the Sorosis orchard 

 at Saratoga the set was fairly uniform 

 for 1915 and 1916, but in 1917 the owner 

 placed some 115 colonies of bees in the 

 orchard during the blossoming season. 

 Recause of the bees the percentage of 

 set increased greatly in 1917 and raised 

 the average for the three-year period up 

 to 8.3 per cent. Moreover, the yield 

 emphasises the effective work of the 

 bees. In 1916 with the normal set aver- 

 aging 3.2 per cent the yield on 180 acres 

 was 344 tons of dried prunes. On the 

 same acreage in 1917 with an average 

 set of approximately 12.9 per cent the 

 yield was 432, or an increase of nearly 

 100 tons of dried fruit." 



J 



Bastian ft /? 

 Pruning >■£ 

 Implements 1 



Catalogue 

 mailed on 

 request. 



Northwest Fence & 

 Wire Works 



PORTLAND, OREGON 



ION BETTER 



